As one of the newer members of the Big 12 conference, West Virginia and Tech do not have much history on the basketball court. A Sweet 16 meeting in 2005 turned out to be a fantastic matchup that the Mountaineers narrowly won. The home court for West Virginia is the 14,000 seat WVU Coliseum.
Built in 1970, the first game played was against the Red Raiders of Colgate in front of a crowd of 10,000. Just a week later, Kentucky was almost defeated in front of 13,000 fans. Concrete is heavily present in the architecture of the building and in 1971 it received an award for Outstanding Concrete Structure from the American Concrete Institute. It replaced the WVU Fieldhouse, now named Stansbury Hall, which was the home of WVU basketball from 1929 to 1970, where Jerry West played his college basketball.
Statistics
- Opened 1970
- Initial cost of $10.4 million
- 14,000 capacity
- The men's team has a record of 487-145 at WVU Coliseum
- The women's team has a record of 345-149 at WVU Coliseum
- The biggest crowd to see a WVU basketball game was on February 24th, 1982 at a 82-77 win against Pittsburgh
- Both teams have over an .800 winning percentage against non-conference teams
- There are no rafters in the ribbed-style roof, giving every seat an unobstructed view of the arena
